Is It a Sin…

We have a pretty large lawn, and we are motivated to keep it cut. Not in order to keep up with the neighbors, because we really don’t have any. We learned early in our habitation of this place that the mosquitoes do much better when they have tall wet grass to stalk their friendly human hosts from. So we started mowing…

Last summer I used some savings to upgrade our mowing equipment. Our previous garden tractor was a 10 horse John Deere that had spent a couple of decades up the hill mowing the cemetery. I bought it when the cemetery board deemed it not worth repairing, had it repaired, and mowed with it for a couple of more decades. Last summer we splurged and bought a Cub Cadet ZRT rider.

There is a learning curve to driving one of these new mowers. The first few times around the yard, I probably did as much damage as I did good. But as my hands on the levers learned what to do without involving the thought process, man and machine became one.

I came in from mowing the other day and asked Alice, “Is it a sin to enjoy mowing your lawn?” All my youth, cutting the grass was a chore. Now I kind of look forward to it.

My least favorite part of the whole thing prior to this new mower was the trim. The old John Deer just wasn’t too handy mowing around things, so I’d leave that step to a push mower. Pushing that old mower around was not my idea of a great time, but I did it and the lawn definitely improved as a result. Last summer I gave the old mower away to a young person that needed it, and replaced it with a Honda self-propelled… luxury. I never thought much about self propelled mowers, but this one is great, especially when mowing the steep hillside next to the road.

The trimming has improved with a better hand mower, but mostly because the new riding mower trims so nicely. It is probably bigger than the old John Deere, but man can that thing spin around the obstructions. I mow around a lot of trees I planted as a dust barrier near the road, and I feel like a stock car racer going around a figure 8 track when I’m doing it. Rooommm Bapa Bapa!

So some brain rewiring seems to be in order here. When the concept, “time to mow the lawn” seeps in, I need to replace, “aw crap” with “yipee.”

One Response to “Is It a Sin…”

I agree. Over the past few years I’ve logged at least 100 hours using a ZRT mower. Sometimes I even mow for 8 hours a day, 3 days in arow. Even then, it is still fun. Having hearing protectors that I can plug my iPod into really makes even better. I’ve listened to many hours of music and podcasts.